[Nineties Flava]

What never ceases to amaze me is how the local Bay Area media will pen countless stories about the "plight of the Oakland black community" on the streets of Deep East Oakland and then completely ignore the successful black population in the surrounding hills that are literally a block away. When's the last time anybody ever heard that the Oakland Hills are home to one of the most successful black populations in the country? I guarantee everybody's heard about the least successful contingent of blacks in Oakland. In my opinion it's incredibly dishonest reporting that only serves the purpose of perpetuating racist stereotypes, and especially in a region where the stereotype is that the "average" black person is a bottom dweller hailing from the slums of Oakland/Vallejo/San Francisco/Richmond/East Palo Alto/etc. The very existence of the Oakland Hills contradicts the bull**** stereotypes about blacks that the media chooses to endorse. I don't want to make this thread a political statement but I'm personally fed up with what amounts to intentional false-reporting for the sake of increased readership/viewership... making black people the media whipping-boy is an antiquated ploy of the 1970's that does not belong in the 2010's.

Anyway, I bring up all of this because Chabot Park and the other surrounding Hills neighborhoods are oddities for Oakland in that they are firmly upper middle and upper class and yet are majority black; Oakland's wealthy neighborhoods tend to be more diverse or skew more white so it is interesting that there is an entire section of the Oakland Hills that is majority black.

This is the racial make up of the neighborhood:

http://pics.city-data.com/nraces/5279.jpg

It's apparently been that way for a while... Oakland was one of the few places on the west coast that was decent for black businesses in the early 1900's so there's pretty much always been a large wealthy black population here. I do wonder, though, how much segregation had to do with there being a historically whiter and historically blacker side of the hills... many upwardly mobile blacks were trying to move to San Leandro in the 60's and 70's to the chagrin of many white San Leandrans. In 1971 SL was named one of the most racist suburbs in America by fair housing advocates so it's not very surprising that the part of Oakland bordering San Leandro remains majority black across all economic levels.

The Foothill Square neighborhood is named for the Foothill Square plaza on 106th & Foothill. Much like Eastmont Mall it used to be a much more important center in the city but since the late 80's it's declined greatly. Interestingly enough, though, there's talk of private development coming to renovate the plaza... this will be the first major reinvestment in the neighborhood in decades. It appears to mainly be catering to a more working class audience too so it seems to be geared towards providing needed services for the neighborhood as opposed to gentrifying it. The neighborhood itself is at the very eastern end of Oakland; San Leandro starts less than 2 blocks away from 106th. Architecturally it looks very similar to the neighboring parts of San Leandro but culturally the two could not have been more different up until the last 20 years when San Leandro finally became integrated.

And that's the end of my Wall of Text... here's the pics.


Deep East Oakland


Foothill Square


http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3574/img2553vw.jpg


Oakland Hills

Chabot Park


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There's a gap here; the next photos are taken at the top of Chabot Park and I'm coming down the hill.

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Deep East Oakland

Foothill Square (continued)


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______________________________________________________

Thanks for viewing my thread. All feedback is appreciated and will be returned.

[Nineties Flava]

I'll upload some video I took in the next hour...

[stepper77]

Nice tour!

[Nineties Flava]

Nice tour!

Thanks stepper.

[Expat]

Good job. I have no patience for lazy journalism.

Anyway, I love those long ranchers. They don't have many of those here.

[ShadowMaster]

Oakland lives up to it's name. So many trees, which is a good thing.

These are the areas where Jason Kidd was from, no ?

[Nineties Flava]

Oakland lives up to it's name. So many trees, which is a good thing.

These are the areas where Jason Kidd was from, no ?


Yup... I forget which neighborhood in the hills he's from though. I think he's from around Merritt College off of Redwood Rd.

[p-vidal naquet's ami]

"The very existence of the Oakland Hills contradicts the bull**** stereotypes about blacks that the media chooses to endorse. I don't want to make this thread a political statement but I'm personally fed up with what amounts to intentional false-reporting for the sake of increased readership/viewership... making black people the media whipping-boy is an antiquated ploy of the 1970's that does not belong in the 2010's."
Monsieur Flava:

I could not agree more with you, but make that the 1770s. It appears that a good part of America just can't let go, to paraphrase a noted American author, of the whole folly of its misadventures in race (ism).

That said, I am glad that you made your way out to Chabot Park Estates. For the readers who are unfamiliar with this part of the wealthy Oakland hills, I cannot emphasize enough how wide-ranging a neighborhood this is. Nineties Flava had his work cut out for him in traveling a part of Oakland that seems more akin to Sonoma Valley in both topography and distances than it does a supposedly "gritty" Oakland of popular myth and prejudiced perceptions. Bus service is scarce (Chabot Parklanders, by definition, prefer to ride by Lexus, Benz, and Beamers), and taxis don't frequent the area. I don't believe Nineties Flava has a horse like many of those who do live in Chabot Park Estates.

The really wealthy area of this neighborhood covers Ettrick, Elvessa, Golf Links Road, Lochard, Bemis, Caloden Street, and Golf Links Road. The other wealthiest stretch of the neighborhood includes Tate Terrace, Commonwealth Drive, Sun Valley Drive, Lowery Road, and this area is unique in that it not only includes very impressive homes and estates in the classic mid-20th century modernist style (sprawling ranchers, expansive manicured gardens and grounds consisting of local flora, California suburban chic, etc.), but also equestrian facilities and riding grounds. Let me correct that: the large single-family homes and estates include equestrian facilities and riding grounds.

I always find that this part of Oakland stands brilliantly at odds with the bigoted myths about the city, in that (a) you have large to palatial hillside properties with expansive grounds, including stables and riding ranges, owned by wealthy, (hyper) educated African-Americans who own, care for, and ride their horses on their own properties.

None of dominant media or much of the public, not the least of which includes the all too fair-weather liberals of San Francisco and Berkeley, want to know about, consider, speak of, much less acknowledge this truth. It doesn't fit the metanarrative of African-American life in America, which posits that African-Americans either exist to "terrorize" whites or be "saved" by them, and often both. In this context, Oakland is not a real city but a place full of African-American "gangstas" so "savage" that there is nothing and no one to "save." And Berkeley's and San Francisco's fair-weather, faux liberals can talk themselves into doing nothing to address any problems in their "fair" cities by pointing to Oakland and saying, "See? We are doing things right, because, hey, our towns are not as 'bad' as Oakland. And besides, Oakland shows that you can't do anything for 'those people' anyway."

Chabot Park Estates truly effs, in a manner of speaking, with this metanarrative in so many ways.

For the viewers of these threads, Flava did capture some of the area that I mentioned (the very hill-top homes with manicured gardens in this thread are from the aforementioned prime areas of Chabot Park Estates).

But I was rather surprised that you didn't capture some of the largest of the estates on Bemis, on Golf Links Road between Golf Links/Grass Valley Road and Sun Valley Drive, for example. Then again, the borders of this neighborhood obviously meander far and wide and the area contained therein are almost rural in flavor. It is amazing that you covered as much ground as you did. Park Chabot Estates makes Oakland's northernmost wealthy and wide-ranging hillside neighborhoods -- Upper Rockridge, Montclair, and Oakmore-- seem cozy and contained by contrast.



"Anyway I bring up all of this because Chabot Park and the other surrounding Hills neighborhoods are oddities for Oakland in that they are firmly upper middle and upper class and yet are majority black; Oakland's wealthy neighborhoods tend to be more diverse or skew more white so it is interesting that there is an entire section of the Oakland Hills that is majority black."

Yes, you're absolutely right. While very Oakland's wealthy Claremont, Upper Rockridge/Claremont Pines, "Old" and Upper Montclair, and Upper Oakmore all have relatively large African-American populations versus their peer neighborhoods in Piedmont, Berkeley Hills, and San Francisco, African-Americans make up the majority in Chabot Park Estates -- and not just in the middle-class-to-upper middle class sections ---but in the very prime, genuinely wealthy core of Chabot Park Estates.

There is, to be fair, a sizeable "white" (and Asian/Hispanic) group who also live in Chabot Park Estates, as well. But they too, are an American minority; they belong, after all, to that special club of the secure, safe, and comfortable top percentile of American splendor: the truly wealthy.

I hope you might get a chance to return to this neighborhood and photograph more of Ettrick, Elvessa, and Golf Links Road, as well as Lochard, Bemis, Caloden Street,Roderick, Cliffland, and especially Tate Terrace, Commonwealth Drive, Sun Valley Drive, and Lowery Roads.

As I said before in another thread, this area is "owned" by African-Americans with ties to such notorious gangs as the University of California, the Ivy League, Jesuit Ivy League, New Ivies, and not a few have ties to foreign mobs such as U of Toronto, La Sorbonne, Cambridge, and Oxford. You can see these "gangstas" of that gritty, urban Oakland neighborhood, Chabot Park Estates, along with their white partners in crime (aka "neighbors") cruising atop their "pimped-out" horses for drive-by snootings, armed with Gold and Black American Express cards,which said riff raff will bring to bear in wanton, merciless, nay senseless expressions of gourmet appreciation and good conversation at such dens of inequity as Comis, Hibiscus, Pican, and the old school Bay Wolf and Oliveto's.

Underreported truths. Ain't they a whole lot trippier than fictions?

Oakland....bitches !!!!

LOVIN' IT.

[Expat]

P-Vidal - I always appreciate your insight. Often you mention that NF missed some of the wealthier estates. As someone that photographs often, I want to point out how hard that is. The most picturesque estates are often hidden behind fences & gates. Or so far from the street that good photos are nearly impossible. And they tend to be far apart, giving someone on foot an almost insurmountable challenge. When I try to photograph wealthy sections of Boston suburbs, I must bring a car. And even with a car, the best & most interesting homes are out of reach of my camera. Because like I said, they are far apart & hidden. Or nearly hidden.

Also, there is the issue of security. When one stands at the end of a gated driveway on a deserted street with a camera, it draws attention. Much less attention than standing on the corner and photographing a row of houses in a more densely populated areas.

Having said that, Nineties Flava, I have wondered if you encounter trouble photographing in residential areas. Have you been met with suspicion? I have. More than once I have had to explain myself.

[Morn]

Very nice. I'm also quite amazed at how much this looks like suburban Australia, this could easily pass for a western Sydney suburb, the house sizes, garden styles, types of cars in the yard, it's uncanny.

[Nineties Flava]

@ Expat: I've been approached four times... funnily enough, the first time was less than a block from where I live by some woman. The second time was by a BART cop by Chinatown. Interestingly, the BART cop was infinitely more friendly... lol.

Considering how often I'm out, though, that's not that bad especially since I tend to focus on largely residential neighborhoods where there's less "reason" for me to be there. To minimize getting approached I tend to keep the camera in my pocket until I find my next subject but occasionally that doesn't work if the subject isn't stationary. In that case I just don't make a big deal of taking the picture. This is also why I don't use a tripod... in some places it pays to be able to look "normal" (ie not lugging camera equipment in plain sight) without having to go through a lot of trouble to do so.

Other things I do to minimize drawing attention include not stopping multiple times for the same subject or backtracking... if I miss an opportunity, I move on and look for others... to people driving or walking by, it's going to look odd to see someone constantly stopping and turning around.

@Morn: Would never have guessed that lol.